EvY at HomE

To add to the complete crappery that was 2011, my Aunt Chela's son died in a fire on the night of the 27th. He was 32. On the 28th four out of five of my siblings plus the two nieces went to Mexicali for the funeral. We're on our way back now. This year has been total crap. I can't wait for it to be over. - mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

I was thinking about making gift guides for you all but those things take work and other people do them better than I do so I thought I'd make you a gift guide for me. Of things you should NEVER buy me. Now this is day after Christmas and Matt said I should have done it before Christmas but it's more one of those reflection type things since actually my family violated all of these rules. They got lucky this time... 1) Never buy me decor things. I'm sure you may have a good inkling as to what would work in my home but you're probably wrong. Even if it's black and white and yellow, just say no. 2) Scented candles. I am very particular about candle smells and take great pleasure out of finding the perfect candle smell for the house and the room it will go in so don't take away my pleasure. Unscented candles maybe if they're particularly me but no smells. 3) CLOTHES. NO. NO. NO. You cannot possibly guess what I would like in an article of clothing or if...

Last year she was barely able to push a toy walker thing. Now she insists the baby doll goes in the carrier before it goes on the cradle. She says "Gadget" & "L.J." and dips her chips in a lot of guac before she will eat them. She made out like gang busters and we will speak of that anti-feminist present soon enough. - mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

On the night before a party I usually have the room all set up like it will look the following night and even turn all the candles to make sure the lighting is just right.  Don't think it's beneath me to tie a bow around a Tapatio bottle. I'll do it danngit. Well it's time to get ready for my family's Christmas dinner and gift exchange. There's been some drama lately so I'm just ignoring all my mom's phone calls until we get through it because I fear the things I'll say. All I do is text her back when she asks me questions.

After weeks of it being the room where I shoved all the Christmas decorations I hadn't found a place for  I finally made myself go into the drum room and finish getting it ready for guests. The Old Navy job scored us some hanging lamps that plug in so I hung it over the bed. None of the bedrooms have overhead lighting, everything is plugged into an outlet and has a lamp. So this is kind of pretend overhead lighting since it's basically just a lamp hung from the ceiling. This arm chair is my favorite thing about this room. Very few places are so comfortable for reading. The side table is a pretty cute little scene. Oh yeah there's a tree in here too. With a tiny present underneath it as well. The alarm clock has capability for playing your mp3 player of choice. I would choose an iPhone, but that's just me. I switched out the sheets for flannel sheets. We used to use these in our bedroom before we switched to non-snowflake-y flannel sheets. Technic...

I have not been doing much this week. Maybe I am just too aware of the fact that starting Friday we will be bombarded with people every single day and maybe instead of taking advantage of that fact to clean I'm taking advantage of that fact to spend the day in p.j.s, eating leftovers, and watching hours of 30 Rock. Doesn't seem like me though... I should be spending every waking moment getting ready for parties and family and making the house look spotless!  I spent yesterday cleaning up the two guest rooms and realizing, I guess there isn't that much to clean after all? Or is it that I'm just too lazy to care? I mean, how dirty can two rooms that sit unused 80% of the time get? Not very dirty as I learned. Some dusting, some vacuuming, a little aesthetic rearrangements and they looked ready. The living room and kitchen need some serious scrubbing but I feel like I can do that next week before the big party. And my family won't care if things aren't perfect...

You know how I prepared the guest room with the concept that it was a "hotel room"? Well I took it a few steps further. Other than it having its own stationery and pamphlet, I also made these: That's right, hotel key card holders. Apparently I've also decided that the new branding of my hotel involves the color purple. Upon "check-in" guests will be given their card holders with keys inside. I have a collection of hotel keys in the office so it was easy to re-create a hotel key. Add a barcode and some arrows and boom, sold. I also put room numbers on the doors. And by the door handles is this little box: Which is the "key card" lock to allow you entry into your room. Please make sure you slide it with the arrows pointing down otherwise you'll be sleeping on the couch. I'd like to tell you that I did this mostly for Charlotte & Claire so we can play hotel when they come to spend the night, but even as grown-up...

The holidays are not a time of rest for the cooks and hosts of the family. I am about to type into evernote all the cooking assignments I have for the rest of the year with all the family gatherings and parties that are coming up and was thinking that this year hasn't been much of a cooking year for ole Liz Lemon , EvY. (Pics below are of this year's cooking adventures). What changed a lot for our family was the news that Matt was allergic to eggs and dairy making us: VEGAN at home. Tan Tan Tan! Which opened up a whole new world of cooking and eating out. And though our options are much more limited eating out, cooking vegan at home has been a really enjoyable challenge. I don't have the balls to go fully vegan myself but I am trying to limit the eggs and dairy intake since honestly, dairy isn't that good for you to begin with.  Expanding our horizons to veganism led to cooking outside of America and I have added ingredients to my cupboard I...